Climate change, floods, typhoons and wildfires

by Fr. Shay Cullen, Founder since 1974

PREDA

The Philippines has suffered damaging floods despite the billions of pesos paid to contractors for hundreds of flood control projects, mostly in Bulacan province. The Senate has uncovered fake projects, overcosting and underperformance by contractors.

Some senators claim in recent hearings that corruption is so widespread. Investigators cannot cope, and law enforcement against fraud and corruption, is weak and prone to bribery aimed at covering up the anomalies. Corrupt politicians are part of the dirty deals, getting kickbacks from contractors after approving the flood control projects. This makes the contractors unable to implement the projects properly.

The people suffer; waterborne diseases spread; roads are impassable, preventing people from getting to and from work; small houses are deluged, with floodwaters rising knee-high, destroying property; and electricity is cut off, spoiling food. All these and more are causing hardship to millions of people. Their cost to the economy runs in the billions of pesos, and repairing the damage costs billions more.

All these, if the senators are to be believed, are due to corruption because the contractors failed to provide adequate drainage systems. This is exacerbated by natural forces at play. There is land subsistence and rapid urbanization, causing overcrowding and clogging canals and rivers, blocking water flow and ultimately contributing to the problem.

This will continue because we are facing a climate crisis, in which temperatures are rising due to the burning of coal, oil and gas, and progress is slow in constructing alternatives like wind and solar power plants.

Stronger and more frequent typhoons are the result of global warming. We can see that Europe is scorching, with its forests burning day and night, devastating huge areas. This destroys the important carbon sinks that can prevent temperatures from soaring.

Then there is the warming of oceans, the greatest absorber of carbon dioxide that can slow the rise in global temperatures and keep them below the dangerous level of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The oceans are the biggest absorbers of greenhouse gases. The intense heat is melting the glaciers in both the North and South poles. Glaciers in other places are also melting, flowing into the oceans and contributing to their rising levels. Warmer oceans change the biodiversity and cause schools of fish to migrate to cooler waters, disrupting the food chain.

Increasing temperatures also cause acidification that can lead to coral bleaching, reducing the fish population all the more, disrupting their migration and threatening other marine species.

Research shows there are approximately 1.9 to 2.3 million registered small-scale coastal Filipino fishermen in the Philippines. They are generally poor and depend on whatever they catch daily. They also provide almost half of the nation’s fish, providing hundreds of thousands of fish vendors with livelihoods and families with nutritious, high-protein food. Climate change and ocean warming will endanger this important sector.

In 10 years, waters from Manila Bay could be flowing into the University of Sto. Tomas. Property owners near the bay can expect greater floods in the future. The ocean cannot be stopped or held back, and the danger they can pose rises. All this has causes that few want to think about.

Coal-fired plants

The Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) plans to build more coal-fired plants are truly against the well-being and interest of the Filipino people.

Its power-generation arm, Meralco PowerGen Corp., is planning to build such a plant in Toledo, Cebu province, and another in Atimonan, Quezon province. By contributing further to global warming by burning more fossil fuels, Meralco is making itself an enemy of the people and a destroyer of the environment while posing as a savior by providing electricity — which is not exactly cheap — while generating millions of pesos for their shareholders. The plant will not only cause greater global warming, more floods and droughts for people but will also destroy our beautiful biodiversity.

People have been crying out against these projects for 10 years, and government officials are making corrupt deals when they approve permits for their construction. Their kickbacks must be huge. The corrupt are sure to be punished for their sins against the people and God’s creation. Coal-burning plants like Meralco’s are the worst of all polluters. A just government or Supreme Court that cannot be bribed, that possesses a strong conscience and courage, has to stop them.

What is unstoppable at present — unless we cut off fossil fuel-generating power plants — is the alarming rise in global temperatures. Last year has been the warmest so far, with an average global temperature exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

We can see it increasing, and we can expect more frequent, intense, prolonged and damaging weather events. Stronger typhoons, floods, droughts, heat waves; damage to infrastructure and crops; fish migration; and rising sea levels. There are other consequences, like mass migration from South to North, which is happening now, and likely more wars and violence. Millions of poor and starving people will leave their homes for the world’s wealthier regions.

The nation’s elite have to find a moral compass, repent for their greed and corruption, and find a conscience and the courage to do justice for the people, the environment and the nation.